Chio and the Fad
チオとファ ド
'… what did I do to deserve this…?'
Manana's lips quirked, and Chio knew she was in deep trouble. Just as her pig-tailed friend opened her mouth to yell, Chio lunged.
Chio did not reach Manana in time.
"Everyone! The floor is lava!"
'…. Oh… Right…
… I invited people over.'
Manana, for all her rehabilitated Otaku status, still couldn't resist the lure of popular games. Especially when said games were all the students at Samejima High – and more importantly, the popular kids – could talk about.
Yuki had actually seemed interested in something other than running for once. As the most athletic out of the rag-tag trio, Yuki's enthusiasm for mobile gaming was totally incongruent. Then she opened her mouth:
"I catch them when I'm running, and sometimes they try and escape," Yuki babbled, showing the virtual map of the local streets on her phone's screen. Several enticing dots acting as beacons flickered, noting that a creature to be captured was allegedly close by. "When they do that, I find it's really fun to catch up and hunt them down."
'She really just lives to run,' Chio thought sadly, half expecting Yuki to rip off her uniform and sprint off into the horizon in just her gym wear, all the while in pursuit of another pocket monster.
Perhaps, one day, Yuki would die doing what she loved. Or maybe not even death could stop Yuki Hosokawa from running and the local streets would have another unorthodox other problem (other than Chio herself, that is) to deal with. An eternity later, and all that would be left were the stubborn scraps from the rubber soles of her running shoes.
Manana, though Chio did not know it, shared a similar sentiment. She quickly recovered, however, and withdrew her own phone – smugly flashing a selection of highly rated and rare pocket monsters that had Yuki 'ooh-ing' and 'ah-ing'.
Chio hung back a little as they reached a crossing, sighing forlornly at the fate of the Western games she played never gaining such infamy. Why did it have to be pocket monsters and not assassins that became the hottest thing?
"Maybe because pocket monsters are cute and killing people isn't?" Manana scoffed. Had Chio said that out loud? "Yes."
Tittering nervously, Chio fiddled with the handle on her school satchel. "But surely it's just all subjective? Battle Royale games seemed to be popular a few months back, and now there's this?"
Yuki and Manana looked on blankly as Chio tried to dig her self out the hypothetical hole she'd dug for herself, rather stupidly. "All I'm saying is that tastes change frequently – and I'm pretty certain these things don't get popular because of everyone enjoying it. What's the word-"
"'Fad'?" Yuki offered.
"Yes! They're just a fad!" Chio snapped her fingers.
"Hoh…?" Manana drawled. "Then, how would you make a mainstream game that wasn't a fad?"
Chio sputtered and stuttered her way out of answering committedly until the light at the crossing signalled it was safe for pedestrians to cross; only then did she blurt out that they needed to go before they were late for school. The fact that the three girls were on time for once did not cross her mind, and Manana knew that Chio did not have an answer for her.
"But we have plenty of time," Manana called to Chio's retreating back. She twiddled a section of her bangs around her finger idly, enjoying seeing Chio squirm.
Yuki, as always, had a sickeningly sweet piece of wisdom to hand. "Don't you find though that the days when you're earlier than what you consider early extremely rewarding? It happens to me all the time when I run."
'And that,' Chio thought weakly, 'Is why I will never run to school other than when I'm late. If I tried to make it any earlier than normal, I'd have pulled an all-nighter behind my computer screen and gone to school without sleep. Plus running is just one of those things you get sucked into along with fad diets – as if I'd ever do one of those.'
Manana was relentless though. "Chio! I'm really curious now. What's your plan for the best game since pocket monsters?"
"Well… you see… um," Chio's face pinched up in thought. Sweat began to bead on her forehead as Manana's eyes narrowed knowingly.
This was what Manana had wanted all along though, Chio realised. Any opportunity to trip her childhood friend up and springboard her way higher into popularity central – Chio knew she would do the same, though not entirely for the same reasons as Manana. This was how their friendship operated though, and while Manana had the upper-hand now, she may not later.
Mustering up confidence she didn't really possess, Chio inched her glasses to sit more comfortably along the bridge of her nose. "Give me the rest of the day to think on it, and if you all don't mind, maybe we could come up with something-" Manana was not prepared for this, "-together!"
The reactions Chio received were near polar opposites. Manana looked as though she would rather be anywhere else than in Chio's gaming cave (and she hoped to whatever deity would listen that the BL magazine still wasn't hidden under Chio's rug), while Yuki couldn't be more enthusiastic with the proposal.
The athletic girl clapped her hands together joyfully. "Oh, that sounds really fun! But I have my club to attend this afternoon, and I won't be able to leave until later on."
The three of them were near the school gates now, where Gotō-Sensei and Momo awaited them. Chio took great delight in seeing Manana panic; currently she was trapped between a rock and a hard place. An Otaku's paradise and a reminder of everything she was now striving to be. Chio decided it was time to land the killing blow.
"I know then – why don't we wait until later on and have a sleepover at mine? It's Friday after all, so we don't have to be up the next day." Yuki and (a very reluctant) Manana both agreed Chio's plan worked around their differing schedules.
'K.O.,' thought Chio, witnessing Manana skilfully disguise the crushing defeat she'd been dealt beneath platitudes and a chirpy good morning to their Senpai and their teacher.
'The thing is though…
…I'm really not prepared for functional human interaction at all.'
Yuki had suggested that Chio should just swap phone numbers and addresses with her, so that she could run straight from her track practice to join the sleepover. Manana and Chio in the meantime would set things up in preparation. For example; sorting snacks and drinks for the night, burning the BL magazine, tidying up the gaming cave, scattering the remains of the magazine, and digging out more pillows and blankets from around the house.
For a sleepover that should have been about creating the next-best game (which wasn't going to be a fad, nope), this was turning into more of a general sleepover. One with people too tired to do anything other than stuff themselves with snacks, stay up for longer than intended, and passing out from sheer boredom.
"Hey," Manana chimed as the pair of them neared the convenience store on their usual route. "Do you have any snacks in?"
Chio scratched her chin. She didn't. She had, in fact, cleaned out the stock of junk food she kept in her room only a few nights ago; having stayed up during a critical game and needing the sugar to keep her alert. Several hours of mindless snacking later, and Chio had to refuse the breakfast her mother had made that morning because of how her stomach was churning uncomfortably.
The two of them bought whatever caught their eye and lingered over some healthier snacks for Yuki – unsure as to whether the latter had any concerns over sugar or whether she'd just run it all off the next day. Health foods were all the rage these days, and maybe it wouldn't be so bad to balance out their own selection of chocolates, chips, and gummies with some reduced sugar products?
Chio felt her toes curl at the sight of another fad, though the lingering sensation of the snacks she'd binged days prior kept her from dismissing the healthier snacks altogether.
"Let's just get it," said Chio, eying the logo on the packaging in her hands ('Sugar free for you and me!') with disdain and making her way towards the counter. "They can't be that bad."
As soon as Chio had paid for everything Manana ripped open the healthy snacks and shoved one into her friend's mouth.
"Manana!" Chio coughed, trying her best not to spit the snack out. She chewed reluctantly, face wobbling in an attempt to convince the other girl that the snacks were truthfully delicious and trying her best to ignore the way the tasteless pulp in her mouth ground against her teeth and tongue.
"See," she said finally, having swallowed the sugar-free sweet thereabouts (part of it lingered between her gums, and Chio would most definitely be flossing between her teeth tonight). "They're really good – in fact, try one!"
Before Manana could cringe out of the way, a sugar-free snack was forced past her lips.
A mutual understanding fell between the two friends as they walked on silently to Chio's home picking the remains of the gritty snack from the nooks and crannies between their teeth – the open bag of sugar free snacks buried underneath everything else in the carrier bag Manana held.
'These are for Yuki.'
Goodbye, Soldier
さようなら、戦 士
"Hey, I'm still curious though," Manana began, slipping off her shoes inside the genkan and bowing in greeting to Chio's mother. "What makes a game popular?"
"If it's fun I guess," Chio shrugged, leading the other girl to her room. "Like when we were kids; if it was fun we played it."
'She can't really be thinking of creating something like "tag" or "Kabaddi" can she?' Manana wondered, horrified at the thought of 'Kabaddi 2.0'. 'Then again, we thought that Mananacchio was brilliant…'
Chio gestured to an array of physical-copy games she'd pulled out from the draws of her desk. She didn't normally by games outside of the online platform she used, but each of these she'd placed before Manana on her pink rug had been limited editions – some came with figurines and posters too! – and Chio just had to have them.
"There's something about the sensation you get from successfully assassinating someone, or storming an enemy base in Co-Op, which makes it really fun and… oh…" Manana did not look impressed. Chio tittered nervously; "I guess this wasn't exactly what you meant about fun games then, Manana?"
Manana thrust her index finger into Chio's clavicle. "Since when did 'Rooty-Tooty Point and Shooty' end up on the same level as pocket monsters? Are you an idiot – not everyone likes this sort of thing!"
'…Ah… I forgot…
This is supposed to be about "normal" games.'
Chio was at a loss. She'd grown so out of touch with her peers – despite trying her best to be 'normal' – from her years of shootouts, horror games, assassinations, and the occasional foray into dating sims, that she had no idea what other people found remotely interesting anymore. JRPG's were still a thing, right? Did people still like those cutesy or overpowered characters better than rugged warriors or soldiers with tragic backgrounds?
Manana could feel her eye twitching. She'd reformed her old Otaku self, quite well in her own opinion, but Chio was obviously a lost cause. The ginger teen lived and breathed for Western games, to the point where they were (sadly) going to take over her entire life. Manana would miss Chio when it happened, but hopefully at that point Yuki would have granted Manana passage to the holy land that was popularity. The day that Chio snapped and exposed her true self to their year group and upperclassmen was the day that Manana ascended the ranks.
Manana sighed in irritation, popping open a packet of choco-coated biscuit sticks they'd found on sale next to the branded variant three times the price. "Look, why don't we just go back to basics then."
She popped the treat into her mouth. Chio leant forwards and nipped off the majority of the snack with her teeth, oblivious to the way Manana's face flushed in surprise at the close proximity.
"Winner!" Chio cheered, pumping her fists into the air as she crunched through the biscuit.
Manana's mouth popped open with a silent screech. The stub of biscuit hanging from her lips bounced off of her lap as it ultimately fell to the floor. "…What…"
"Well," the victor huffed, "You said 'go back to basics' and put that off-brand Pocky in your mouth, so you were obviously challenging me to the Pocky game – and I won. What do I get for winning, Manana? Huuuhh?"
The packets of choco-coated biscuit sticks smacking Chio in the face promptly quietened her down.
"You idiot, I just wanted to eat something!" Manana shrieked. Her heart was racing in her chest. "Eh-Anyway, the Pocky game is for people our age right, so what game would you create that includes everyone?"
"Tag's pretty inclusive."
"No."
"Hide and seek?"
Manana thought on it. "But how would you make it popular for everyone? It's just a kiddie game."
Chio thought about it a little. "I guess you could run games in each Prefecture? Like, a Battle Royale tournament without the elimination process – but instead of a zone you have to reach or people to hunt down, there could be an object you have to find instead?"
'She's… she's just described a scavenger hunt…' Manana wanted to drop her head into her hands and cry from frustration. When it came to Chio and games and problem solving, she could either work miracles, land herself into more upheaval, or just disregard the least convoluted method to a scenario.
"There could be a cash prize as well, for whoever completes it first." Chio hummed happily, quite proud of her suggestion.
Manana grabbed for her school satchel and pulled out her purse. She placed a gleaming one-hundred-yen coin on Chio's desk. "Right, you're going to hide while I go to the bathroom. As soon as I open your door again, I've got a minute to find you. If I win, I get my money back. If I lose, you get one hundred yen."
"Seems fair," Chio grunted, eye's flashing from the lure of money. "Go pee."
'I don't even need the bathroom,' Manana frowned. 'I just needed an excuse to escape the stupidity for five minutes. Who knows, maybe I'll fall into the bowl and never have to go back into her room.'
Keeping up the façade of the average trip to the loo, Manana took her sweet time. She sat on top of the closed toilet lid and picked idly at her nails. Leisurely took her time in lathering up her hands with a musky-scented block of hard soap and letting the tap water warm before she rinsed away the suds. She fiddled with the towels and folded the hanging edge of the toilet roll to a sharp, inviting point.
"I'd better go back," she muttered eventually.
Upon opening the door to Chio's room however, Manana found the space was completely blank. Not a Chio in sight – which, well, was the point really. There were limited places Chio could hide though, unless the jammy cow had decided to ignore the rules imposed to try and swindle Manana out of one hundred Yen.
The obvious place to look was under Chio's desk, her bed, and in her closet. But there were no tell-tale signs that Chio had thrown herself into any of these places. Her sock-clad feet didn't suspiciously stick out form under the curtains. Neither was there a school girl-shaped lump under the pink rug, or an odd arm or leg sticking out from the doors to Chio's closet.
"Ch… Chio?" Manana jabbed her toes against the rug just in case Chio had somehow managed to flatten herself convincingly against the floor. Taking in Chio's disturbing athleticism, and her ability to adapt a tricky situation into a virtual scenario she likely had a strategy for, the aforementioned was entirely possible.
The bedcovers were slightly rumpled, and Manana wandered further into the room; she trod lightly, approaching the light hump under Chio's duvet with caution.
"Gotcha!" She ripped the covers back, excitement flooding her veins. A decorative pillow that had been trapped under the covers that morning as Chio made her bed was the only thing revealed. "Chio?"
Manana was getting ready to concede. She'd have heard someone walking past the bathroom on their way to the stairs, and there was physically nowhere else Chio could hide short of flinging herself out of the window (which wasn't open, and there were no fingers gripping onto the window frame and ledge) or heading downstairs. So where was Chio? Manana felt a chill run ominously down the back of her neck. This was getting pretty freaky – sort of like an indie horror movie.
However, Manana wasn't giving up just yet:
She flung open the closet doors-
"Chio?"
– and all of the desk draws, too small to fit a grown girl's body.
"Chio?"
Manana rolled up the rug in a panic, shifted the furniture this way and that, beat the curtains and the mattress-
"CHIO?!"
"Pfft-" Manana stilled. Where… where had the laughter come from? "Psst, Manana. Look up."
Chio, arms and legs spread as wide as she could get them, hug aloft in the corner of the room like a spider in its web. Her glasses glinted mischievously. "If there's one thing my experience with multiplayer games has taught me, not every player looks up during an invasion. It's pretty easy to snipe people from high up."
While her friend was unbalanced – making a gun out of her hand and blasting rounds at imaginary targets – Manana cracked her knuckles menacingly and crept over to Chio's hiding spot. The latter looked down just as Manana got in range for an unsavoury eyeful.
"Manana," said Chio cutely. "The floor is lava."
That was how Yuki found them, twenty minutes later: Chio struggling to keep both herself and Manana (who clung to her tied sash for dear life) up off the ground as their combined weight and gravity tried to drag the pair down.
Chio's glasses were askew; Manana didn't care who she flashed with her legs wrapped around Chio's torso, so long as she was safe from the proposed boiling pit beneath them – and the two were wondering why they'd even bothered to begin with. All for a fad, it would seem.
"Yuki don't take another step the floor is lava-" But poor Yuki was already standing by Chio's rolled up rug and weaving her way through the rearranged furniture. In a display of good sportsmanship, Yuki dropped to the ground – playing possum while Manana and Chio shrieked over their lost comrade.
Then Chio lost her grip, and the pair of them came toppling down; Manana flopping onto her back and Chio managing to roll to the side and pull herself up onto the worksurface of her desk before she could tumble into the 'lava'.
"Thank you for your service, Yuki. And thank you, Manana, for one hundred yen."
The Floor is Lava!
床は溶岩です !
'There are no friends in this line of work…'
'At least, that's what one of the characters I've played as would say. Something like that.' Chio could see why. Friends who occasionally backstabbed one another really shouldn't have been friends. Somehow, Chio and Manana had maintained their friendship. It had to be on it's last legs by now though.
Manana hadn't exactly got over the 'the floor is lava' stunt Chio had pulled, despite Yuki ascertaining that it had been lots of fun once they'd reset the game to try and navigate around Chio's house for the rest of the sleepover – all without touching the flooring in her bedroom.
They'd never got around to create the next fad-game either. Too tired and stressed from furniture hopping to do anything other than eat and sleep for the rest of the night.
Chio liked her childhood friend, really, she did. Nevertheless, messing with Manana was also just as fun; anything to rile her up, or to make Chio herself giggle. Honestly, Manana had to let up once in a while, instead of scheming her way into the midst of elite students. Wasn't walking to school with Yuki enough notoriety for one? Chio still had heart palpitations just thinking about it sometimes; so much for an average high school experience.
While the tension between Manana and herself had dispersed over the rest of the weekend, and was largely defused by Yuki's sunny presence, Chio wasn't going to let her guard down. Manana had that look in her eye, much the same as the one when Andō's little sister had stuck her fingers up their arses.
That look promised revenge, and Chio felt her paranoia was justified.
'It isn't paranoia if they really are out to get you,' she nodded. Plus, seeing as Chio had issued the challenge first, it was only fair that Manana initiated the next one.
If this were a game, the field music would have ebbed away and a dull thudding beat would be creeping in to get the player's pulse racing – or eerie violin music would have the hairs on the back of one's neck standing on end. Her danger senses were tingling in the same way they did whenever she played a survival-horror game. Or was it just her self-preservation pre-emptively going into overdrive?
Chio would have to be extra careful. It was petty that Manana wanted revenge for Chio using her stomach as a springboard, or for snatching up a fairly won one hundred yen coin, but that was Manana for you. As catty as they came, and Chio wouldn't swap her for the world.
(Two hundred yen, though? And maybe she would…)
'I can't shake the feeling that someone's watching me…
Heh… just like old times…'
By old times, Chio was referring to yet another horror game she'd picked up off of a forum chat.
Still, her vigilance would not go unrewarded. Both she and Manana had made it to school without many upsets, and certainly no cries of 'Lava!' – though Chio was certain she'd seen Manana thinking about it from the corner of her eye. During breaks, Chio had kept her feet hovering about the ground whenever she sat, and she'd purposely crossed her legs until she was definitely sure Manana wasn't in the vicinity before she dashed for the toilet.
It was the commute home that worried Chio the most.
Yuki wouldn't be there to mitigate Manana's murderous energy, and who knew how long it would take Chio to get home if the ground was declared to be lava. You had to take these challenges seriously, and Chio saw it as a personal test of her gaming knowledge to work with the resources she had available. If that meant hopping onto rooves or sacrificing people to save herself, then she'd gladly stomp on as many people as she could to get to refuge.
'I just have to think of it as a fire level,' Chio thought. 'I've traversed a vast desert in search of a client's stolen relic. The enemy base where it's being held is high up in the mountains on the other side of the dunes I've already crossed, right against an active volcanic site. I am prepared for this; I have elixirs to fend off the initial heat blazes – they should last up until I can steal the correct equipment off an incapacitated henchman.'
Thinking of it as a game would help. Maybe Manana would give Chio five seconds of invincibility to dive to safety? Like a temporary effect of gear in-game?
What if she couldn't get to safety though? The only reason Chio had been up on the rooftops the other week was because of a diversion around some industrial work, and because she had a handy way of reaching the lower levelled porches and flat rooves. What would Manana do to her if she couldn't scale up something and get out of the way? Would she want her money back from the other night – because Chio had already spent that this morning buying tea from a vending machine.
Walking home together though… it was fraught with obstacles and people, and what if Manana played her lava card then, right in the middle of a busy street? Would people actually join in, or would it just be two high school students dossing about like usual?
('Bye-bye normal high school life,' Chio mourned.)
They walked on, Chio beginning to sweat and Manana cool as a cucumber. At that moment Chio noticed a figure on the horizon. An Andō-shaped figure.
"Andō!" She cried, trotting up to the former Bōsōzoku leader.[1]
"Miyamo?!" He was in his uniform for the convenience store, though whether he was on or off duty, Chio couldn't be sure. It was strange to see him further afield from the store though, so maybe he was returning home from work? Still, it wasn't as though it mattered. Andō could help Chio distract Manana from doing that-
Manana took a deep breath and flung a hand to the side dramatically. "Chio!"
The world seemed to slow. A great sense of dread fell upon Chio Miyamo as she pivoted round. Manana's lips quirked, and Chio knew she was in deep trouble. Just as her pig-tailed friend opened her mouth to yell, Chio lunged.
Chio did not reach Manana in time.
"Everyone! The floor is lava!"
Flipping around, Chio screeched an apology to a bewildered Andō, before scaling up his side like it was a ladder and swinging herself atop his broad shoulders. Her legs wrapped firmly around his neck while Manana, the fiend, was sitting idly – although uncomfortably – on a railing separating the public footpath from the road. It was then that Chio realised that Andō wasn't a safe resting place either, and, ignoring how her skirt had somehow trapped itself over his eyes, Chio dove the nearest solid object.
It just so happened to be the overhanging porch of a general store. Chio's hands wrestled for purchase against the biting metal and concrete while Andō floundered.
"Oh no," Manana cried unenthusiastically. "Andō's dead."
(Andō, truthfully, had no idea what was going on right now. But Miyamo had clung to him and-)
"Manana…" Chio wailed, one hand slipping from the ledge she clung to. Tears had started to gather at the corner of her eye. "I'm going to die."
Manana simply raised her eyebrows. 'I hope you perish,' the expression seemed to say.
Just as Chio's fingers started to slip again, a pair of strong hands fastened themselves to her hips. In the security of Andō's strong palms, Chio was gently placed on the ground. It was ridiculous, how safe Chio felt in his grasp – considering what Mayuta Andō had been like when she'd first crossed paths with him in an alleyway. He reminded her a lot of the characters she favoured in Western games; the strong, worldly type, with a secret soft centre. Chio was more enamoured with their battle scars and deadly accuracy though.
"Thank you," Chio whimpered, wiping her snotty nose on her arm and just about restraining herself from hugging the life out of Andō.
Andō rubbed the back of his (reddened) neck sheepishly. "Well… um… Miyamo – that is, erm…"
"Manana," Chio snapped, knowing that she'd lost this round entirely. She stomped her foot childishly for good measure. "I don't like this game anymore – it's a fad now! A fad! So, we have to nerf it."
Manana brushed some imaginary lint off of her skirt and hopped down form her perch. "Whatever."
"Bye," Chio waved to the still flushed-face Andō.
'I don't think I'm going to branch out from Western games in the foreseeable… I don't think my heart can take this shit anymore – and Andō's face looks like it's been scalded by imaginary lava…'
Chio tucked her chin into her chest, feeling her panicked tears beginning to dry in salted rivulets against her cheeks. 'Yeah, I'm not going to mess around with fads or sleepovers anytime soon.'
[1] Bōsōzoku; a Japanese youth subculture surrounding customised vehicles. Think of them as a dwindling, more violent, pompadour-toting, and militaristically aesthetical 60's Mod gang. They were re-classified in 2013 as a pseudo-Yakuza group, so Chio being able to trick/reform Mayuta is no small feat (though we all know how she wangled that and fiction is fiction, I guess…)
All translations from under the headings are my cobbled together phrases. If they're not correct, please can someone drop me a comment and let me know!
A/N [13/9/2018] : I've recently been watching Chio's School Road, and while I'm waiting on episodes 11 and 12 to appear on Crunchyroll I'm really enamoured with the comedy so far. It reminds me a lot of some of the scrapes I got into yonks ago when I walked to and from high school.
I do have some hang ups over the series, however. Kushitori's character – while I'm all for LGBTQ+ representation anywhere (and especially in quite 'closed off' mediums such as Anime – another topic for another time) – really wasn't handled well. I'm not a fan of the promotion of groping, even if it is between the same sex and only used for comedic effect. But allowing and encouraging Kushitori to do so through Kabaddi really isn't right. Non-consensual groping is still groping, and while I get that the anime is sorta Ecchi I still find Kushitori's behaviour… unsettling.
Andō's character and his (non-existent) relationship with Chio is also troublesome. His VA and character design, while used to differentiate him as an older figure in the anime from younger characters, casts him in the same light as Kushitori: quite simply, perverted. The one thing that's stopping this new ship from sinking for me (because yes, I am rooting for this soft-centred biker man), is the fact that Mayuta's younger sister still seems to be in elementary or early middle school, and that he has stated there's only ten years between his sibling and himself. I'm estimating, despite his character design, that he's aged anywhere between eighteen and twenty-three – which again, is still troubling, but not as bad as his thirty-something appearance suggests.
A/N [22/10/2018] : Successfully managed to get Chio's School Road added as new category on FF . net, so get writing everyone!